Word to the Wise
Friday, May 7, 2021 - 5th Week of Easter - Fri
[Acts 15:22-31 and John 15:12-17]"This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another." [John]
In reflecting on this portion of the Farewell Discourse, we might recall what the evangelist says of Jesus as he prepared to wash the feet of the disciples: "Having loved his own in the world, he loved them to the end." [13:1] Now, Jesus challenges the disciples (and us) to love as he loves. He shares the love between himself and his Father and he expects us to share that same love with our neighbor. The enormity of this challenge is obvious to us not only in our individual daily lives but on all levels of state, national and international life. How can we profess to be disciples of Jesus when so much violence surrounds us? Some will even defend the violence as an unfortunate side effect of living in a free society!!! What will Jesus say to that at the Final Judgment?
However, I witness that "laying down one's life for one's friends" in many ways all the time. Parents sacrifice for children and vice versa when parents grow older. Friends put aside convenience to help friends. People enter military service realizing it could cost them their lives in a combat situation (just visit a national cemetery for this testimony). There are many who are indeed living out Jesus' commandment of love. If we wish to be a friend of Jesus, we must be a friend to our neighbor whether close or distant. That kind of love is ultimate and is Jesus' constant challenge to us. AMEN